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As is, Petit lost a perfect game with one out left. He was the 12th to do it in history. That's … pretty special, too. Of the hundreds of thousands of games in history, Petit still pitched one of the most stunning games ever. As with all no-, one-, or two- hitters, there was some good fortune involved. But that's the point. It was a mixture of talent, luck, and being in the right place at the right time for the first 26 batters.

Pence didn't break perfectly after the ball was hit. He went sideways on his first two steps before realizing that the ball was going to be short.
That said, he did make a hell of an effort to catch it at the end and I'm not sure even a perfect break would have gotten him to it in time.

As is, Petit lost a perfect game with one out left. He was the 12th to do it in history.

Dave Stieb has two of those, right?

Edit: Nope. Just one. He had back-to-back potential no-hitters broken up with 2 outs in the ninth, as well as his perfect game attempt.

Was watching the game. For some sick reason, I was rooting against him to make it... Seen enough perfect games/no-hitters in recent years, and I somehow felt that another one would retroactively cheapen the experience of the earlier ones.

I missed it too - my friend's band was in town so I went to see them play (first trip to Gilman in years). I hit twitter during one of the breaks in bands and saw what was going on, but by then it was too late to head over to the bar across the street.

Petit is such a great story - from top 10 prospect, to bouncing around in the minors and even pitching in the Mexican League in 2011, then signing with the Giants organization last year and coming back up to the majors this year. He didn't give up when a lot of others might have, kept working and now this. He'll obviously be with the Giants in spring training in 2014 now, and here's hoping he can keep this up. In a word - Baseball.

Petit is such a great story - from top 10 prospect, to bouncing around in the minors and even pitching in the Mexican League in 2011, then signing with the Giants organization last year and coming back up to the majors this year. He didn't give up when a lot of others might have, kept working and now this. He'll obviously be with the Giants in spring training in 2014 now, and here's hoping he can keep this up. In a word - Baseball.

Big time. I believe the Giants DFA'd him twice this season alone.

Two outs in the ninth, three-and-two count, sinking liner that Pence came THIS close to snagging with a diving effort. Wow. It was a pretty exciting game.

This outing by Petit was exceptional, of course, but it's the third straight strong start he's made (called up to replace the DL'd Matt Cain), and yes, it does appear that he's pitching his way onto the 2014 Giants' staff.

I was fortunate to catch the last inning at the bar after my softball game ended.
I agree with Random that Pence could have caught the ball if he had gotten a better jump.
As an A's and Eric Chavez* fan, I'm pretty ambivalent that Petit lost his perfect game.
Nice class by Petit with his postgame remarks.

ABSOLUTELY 100% NOT AGAINST HUNTER PENCE IN RIGHT FIELD, AS IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN AN INCREDIBLE, “PLAYS OF THE WEEK!”-LIKE EFFORT TO CATCH THAT BALL:

It sucks to have thousands of games of experience go against you like that. Up by 3 in the 9th inning, iffy line drive like that, every outfielder in the world is taught “You can go for the diving catch if you want, but make sure you leave yourself in a good position to stop the ball—the worst thing that can happen right here is if you try to make the diving catch, miss, and have the ball bounce past you and roll to the wall. It’s an automatic triple.”

...It’s that split-second of entirely reasonable hesitation that looked like the difference there. He hesitates for just that briefest of moments before making his dive…and, of course, proceeds to (correctly) stop the ball from getting past him on the bounce.

Other than the two 19th-century guys, Cy Young (1904) had the only perfect game in which the 27th out was the opposing pitcher. As mentioned above, Hooks Wiltse would have joined him in 1908, but he lost the perfect game on a HBP.

Petit lost a perfect game with one out left. He was the 12th to do it in history.

So since there's been 23 perfectos, the batting average of the 27th batter in a would-be perfect game is 12/35 = .342. That's substantially over the league average, especially considering that this batter is necessarily in the ninth lineup slot. I guess clutch hitting (or anti-clutch pitching) exists in the context of breaking up a perfect game.

So since there's been 23 perfectos, the batting average of the 27th batter in a would-be perfect game is 12/35 = .342. That's substantially over the league average, especially considering that this batter is necessarily in the ninth lineup slot. I guess clutch hitting (or anti-clutch pitching) exists in the context of breaking up a perfect game.

That's assumes all almost-perfect games ended on base hits, rather than BB (the Pappas one, at least), HBP (we know of one) or ROE. Plus one groundout.

No, I had it right. 23 perfectos and 12 one-out-away hits. For batting average, any cases other than hit or out are ignored, since they enter into neither the numerator nor denominator. A BB/HBP would remove that game from consideration entirely, since it's now neither a finished perfect game nor a chance at one. There was no at-bat with the perfecto on the line. (ROE should be included in the denominator, yes, but we don't have any cases mentioned.)

One could calculate break-up-the-perfecto OBP instead of BA and include those cases, of course.

There have been 23 perfect games and two games that were broken up in extra innings (although Retrosheet notes that there may be some near-misses about which they don't know). From what we know, 27th men in would-be perfectos have hit .286/.324/.429.

Petit is such a great story - from top 10 prospect, to bouncing around in the minors and even pitching in the Mexican League in 2011, then signing with the Giants organization last year and coming back up to the majors this year. He didn't give up when a lot of others might have, kept working and now this. He'll obviously be with the Giants in spring training in 2014 now, and here's hoping he can keep this up. In a word - Baseball.

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Big time. I believe the Giants DFA'd him twice this season alone.

Two outs in the ninth, three-and-two count, sinking liner that Pence came THIS close to snagging with a diving effort. Wow. It was a pretty exciting game.

This outing by Petit was exceptional, of course, but it's the third straight strong start he's made (called up to replace the DL'd Matt Cain), and yes, it does appear that he's pitching his way onto the 2014 Giants' staff.

I know this is going to come off as sour grapes but its really not. He has been one of the most homer prone guys to come along in a while and that did not change at Fresno this year. He had two of his 3 strong starts against a D Backs lineup that is really struggling. I would not bet on him being even a decent 5 th starter for any length of time.

No, as Sweatpants listed, it's 12 perfect games lost on the 27th out, not 12 perfect games broken up by hits. That's 10 for 35 (which removes the two ABs that ended in HBP, walk, but inserts the two 27th out outs in extra-inning games).

OK, I misread the original statement then. 12 perfectos lost on the 27th batter, but not all by hits. That .286/.324/.429 still sounds a bit above average for the #9 lineup slot, but easily within a small sample size margin of error.

Maybe it's in the best interest of Petit that he DIDN'T get a perfect game:

Last 5 perfect game pitchers:

Dallas Braden - out of the majors in less than 2 years
Roy Halladay - injured, almost out of baseball in less than 3 years
Philip Humber - cut, demoted by Astros, no longer a starter, less than a year later
Matt Cain - horrible season and injured, less than a year later
Felix Hernandez - currently injured, less than a year later

Incidentally, the ninth inning of the Pappas game is available on YouTube.

Thanks, I'd never seen that before.
A couple of things on this: how was ball four to Stahl not a swing? I was really surprised not to see anybody appeal to the 3b umpire.
Also, Pappas later claimed that Stahl told him he'd already decided not to swing. That's a heck of a decided-in-advance non-swing, there.
Also, Pappas later claimed the broadcast showed the home plate umpire saying something to him afterward, or smirking at him, or something. This clip shows nothing like that.
Jeez, Pappas comes off like a whiny ##### a lot of the time. Maybe Durocher was right.

It's really weird watching that Pappas clip, just from a game presentation point of view. People used to watch the game from that camera angle? Man, I hate it when they cut to that angle nowadays. And also, the pace, holy crap the pace. I really noticed how briskly we moved along pitch-to-pitch and batter-to-batter. I loved it; thanks for sharing.

It's really weird watching that Pappas clip, just from a game presentation point of view. People used to watch the game from that camera angle? Man, I hate it when they cut to that angle nowadays. And also, the pace, holy crap the pace. I really noticed how briskly we moved along pitch-to-pitch and batter-to-batter. I loved it; thanks for sharing.

My pleasure. I'm glad you guys liked it.

WGN went to the centerfield camera angle shortly thereafter; I wish I could tell you exactly when, but it was certainly by the time of the famous 1979 Cubs-Phillies 23-22 slugfest, which I've seen. Clearly, I am in desperate need of more footage from Wrigley Field in the mid-1970s.

I've recommended it before, but it bears repeating if you're interested in the history and development of televised baseball, including the decisions regarding the placement of cameras: Center Field Shot, by Walker and Bellamy.

@37, regarding the checked swing on ball 4: though nowadays it is almost automatic for the catcher to request an appeal, often accompanied by a gesture toward the 1st- or 3rd-base umpire, my sense is that this is a relatively recent evolution. Memory tells me that in 1972 it was unusual if not unheard-of. In those days (or thereabouts - it's all very cloudy now :), I had the understanding that the home-plate ump, if he did "ask for help," would gesture with one hand if he really wanted an opinion and would gesture with the other if he only wanted his original call to be upheld. And the catcher would have to make his request verbally; pointing to a base would be showing up the ump. Any other old folks back me up here?